Appeal planned in conservatorship lawsuit

Woodland resident Brenda Cedarblade was either receiving a gift from a trusted relative or taking advantage of her elderly uncle on the day he transferred $1 million in properties into her name, according to lawyers on either side of the case.

Last week a jury in Colorado Springs found that Cedarblade "unduly influenced" her uncle, 76-year-old Phil Delluomo, in getting him to transfer five residential and commercial properties into joint tenancy with her on May 17, 2010.

Cedarblade, owner of Tack Warehouse Saddle Shop and Historic Nelson Ranch, plans to appeal the case, according to her lawyer.

"We will be pursuing an appeal. We believe there were a number of errors in the trial court," said Colorado attorney Glenn Merrick.

"We expect that on appeal the judgment will be reversed, Brenda will be free of any obligation of attorney fees and the case will have to be retried," he said.

Cedarblade was ordered to pay $315,000 in attorney fees and to forfeit her claim on the disputed properties.

That money will go to a court-run conservatorship set up to manage Delluomo's finances in June 2010 -- just days after the May 17 meeting when Cedarblade, her uncle and a real estate broker visited a title company in Colorado.

On that day, Delluomo knew exactly what he was doing, Merrick said.

"I believe her uncle was of sound mind and fully oriented in time and space when he had the deeds transferred into joint tenancy," Merrick told the Democrat. He added that other people present -- Delluomo's property manager and two title company employees -- "all testified to that effect, as did Brenda."

Merrick said the two were close, and had a long history together, so there was nothing too unusual about the property transfer.

"She was his niece, obviously. He was her godfather, he helped pay for her college, he helped her bury her parents, they visited back and forth between California and Colorado."

And fatefully, "When he had prostate cancer the first part of May 2010, she was the first person he called."

Cedarblade went out to visit her uncle, Merrick said, and spent two weeks there caring for him. Then, "the day that she left, which is May 17, is when the deeds were conveyed."

He added that "During that same period of time, he directed that substantial property that he owned would go to other family."

But sometime between late May and June, something happened to Delluomo affecting his cognitive abilities, Merrick said.

"I think her uncle suffered a traumatic event in late May of 2010, probably a stroke," he said.

As a result, "People started making calls to Adult Protective Services based on Mr. Delluomo's abrupt decline, which I think was the result of a stroke, and people saw that there were transfers."

Upon discovering the transfers, a court-appointed conservatorship was set up to protect Dulluomo's assets. They asked Cedarblade to return the properties, she refused, and a court battle ensued.

Michael Cucullu, an attorney representing the conservatorship, gave a very different version of events.

"Brenda Cedarblade comes to Colorado Springs in early May of 2010, entrenches herself in his Colorado home, goes around and starts moving bank accounts to new accounts with her name on them," he said. Her added that those "financial transactions are noticed by the institutions, and we were able to stop all the money" from being transferred.

"A number of people reported her for financial exploitation, including the banks," Cucullu said. Her actions are what alerted Adult Protective Services to set up the conservatorship, he said.

But taking her name off the five deeds was not so simple.

"She was able to get these deeds and hang onto them. After she leaves town, Phil Delluomo kind of gathers his senses it seems, and closes all the accounts with her name on them, and goes back to his estate planning attorney and removes her as a beneficiary."

Cucullu said that Delluomo came to him in fall 2010, looking for help in getting Cedarblade's name off of his properties.

"What he said is, 'I want my properties back. I don't remember giving them to Brenda, I don't want Brenda to have them.'"

His first step was "asking her then-attorney, who was not Glenn Merrick," to arrange for their transfer back to Delluomo.

"She refused, so we had to file suit."

Cucullu added that Cedarblade was a beneficiary in an earlier trust set up by her uncle that would have granted half of his assets -- valued at an estimated $3.5 million -- to her upon his death, if she had just left it alone. But since then Delluomo has removed Cedarblade completely from his will.

"Phil got mad, and didn't like what she did, and went back and said, 'Take her out. Remove her. Zero,'" Cucullu said.

The exact state of mind that Delluomo was in during and after the transfer of properties remains in dispute, even though both sides agree that he seemed to be, in Cucullu's words, "in and out at the time" in mid-2010.

"He had times when I would go see him," Cucullu's said. "... He was still driving at the time, he was still living alone at the time, he didn't need 24-hour care as he does now."

Today Delluomo, who did not testify at the trial, is "in decline. He has progressively worse dementia," Merrick said.

Merrick believes the conservatorship's lawyers have been eating away at Dulluomo's assets to cover their own costs.

"The conservatorship is liquidating all of those assets and using it to pay professional fees," he said. "They want to sell the properties and keep going. ... They're up to seven sets of lawyers being paid out of this conservatorship estate." He said their legal fees have run "north of $860,000" in two year's time.

"They of course all claim it's for Phil Delluomo's care and concern."

In response, Cucullu said, "Had Brenda simply returned the property none of that money would have been spent."

Cucullu said the actual amount of legal fees is somewhat lower. As for the threatened appeal: "Maybe they will, maybe they won't. She's been through four lawyers."

Cedarblade has 45 days to appeal the verdict.

Cedarblade gained notoriety locally in 2006 when she ran for Yolo County supervisor against Frank Sieferman Jr. and Matt Rexroad. Rexroad won the race for 3rd District supervisor.

In 2008, Cedarblade and her husband became embroiled in a dispute with Yolo County over a Clark Pacific concrete plant on County Road 18C, not far from Historic Nelson Ranch. Their suit was thrown out by a judge in 2009.